Well, what do we have here; a workout based on my previous love, Salsa.

Throwing my memory back to four years ago, I’d say this workout is like an extra long warm up in class. All the basics in a row with a smatter of stylization. But throwing my memory even further back to about eight years ago, I think it would have freaked me out. I have to remember that it surely took me time to get a grip on the salsa rhtymn, so much so that my instructor, Kiran, would send me off into a corner to clap with the rhythm and forget about dancing for a while. He yelled at me so much the other dancers felt quite sorry for me. That was fun. Finally I did get it and he once did say at a salsa party, in some disgust, that I was the only one who seemed to understand the rhythm. Moment of triumph.

But back to the workout. It’s led by thin muscley instructor, Lisa Nunziella. No one I particularly kew fromt he world of salsa. She’s energetic and has a major set of lungs on her, for sure.

For the first 15 minutes, I got bored witless. But that’s because she explains the salsa basics. Good for beginners. I’m not a hundred percent sure it’s enough, because lots of people take time to get the basic basic – forward, in place, together, back in place together. In class, many weeks have been spent on getting people to step this way automatically. But well, there you have it. If you have a bit of a sense of rhythm, it would work.

The warm up involves some typical dance stretches, but just a few. Reaches, and bend to come up with rounded back, etc. It’s just five minutes or so. There’s a drummer around doing what drummers do, but I find that so incredibly boring it isn’t funny. Salsa music is so upbeat and infectious that I’m sure they should have found something else a little more inspiring.

Accompanying Lisa also were two other super thin dancer-exercisers. Both a little more graceful than the instructor, actually. But that’s not to diminish the workout. I’m not sure it would tire me out, but it’s a good long thirty minute spell of moves which are thoughtfully demo’d at the end of the DVD for those who want to learn them slowly first. There are repetitions rather than explained and you’ll have to watch and get it. The moves include a basic little turn, side to side steps, front cross overs, the Suzy-Q, a few basics with hops, taps and slides etc. It all looks energetic, but I’m not sure whether that comes from the sheer noise Lisa makes.

The music kicks in during the actual workout and what she does is to do the basic, introduce a move and repeat it. Then she adds another move. And another, until she goes through about ten or so. The workout comes from all the repetition, specially when basics are interspersed between each move.

When all the moves have been added, we go through them as a choreography, except that there are no additional stylizations. During the final two run throughs, Lisa tells you to add your own style, but as a beginner, how are you supposed to know what that means? At least they could have had the three people doing different stylizations! Honestly, I’m getting to thoroughly dislike all these workout cliches – come on, lemme see it now, great job, give it your all. Oh shut up already.

Of course, some zest is needed to keep you at it, else you may drop the pace and head to the kitchen instead.

All in all, the workout definitely is as simple as salsa can get, and it gives you some cardio. It will not compare with the outright aerobic workouts there are, specially any that use equipment. No way. No move is deep enough.

This is still low impact, but for anyone who’s looking for an easy workout, this is an option. It’s also a good way for beginners to practice the rhythm. As a solo salsa choreograph, it’s very basic and styling is minimal, but it’s better than nothing.

Thankfull the steps are pure salsa and not bent out of shape, as I’ve seen in some fitness workouts. The music, once the drummer buzzes off, is also pure salsa and not awful salsa pop.

Here she is, making a case for salsa workout. And you can see some of the basic steps she uses.

By the time I finish experimenting with new workouts for the day, you can well understand that there’s no energy left for belly dancing. Well, today I decided to give the dancing first priority before I go and forget all the nice juicy moves altogether. I was seriously worried that with all the taut stretched out ballet moves and precision pilates, I’d get belly dance rigor mortis!

So I went back to Asharah’s warm up and did a few segments of that. And then a round of Bellydance Rhythms which has become a sort of fall back for me. And then… I decided I’d work with Sarah’s lovely Opulent Motion.

Now what I did absolutely not want to do is make a linear project of it. I really don’t want to start from the beginning and then inevitably keep losing track of it and scolding myself for neglecting it and adding another half-done project to my list. I also wanted whatever I learn from this video to be immediately “actionable”. I think I’m getting too corporatized. That should be danceable.

So I clicked anywhere to choose something and it turned out to be her breakdown of the L and S pose combination.

As it happens, I think this is a nice way to start working with the video for those of us who’ve been dancing for a while. There’s no move there that you don’t know how to do, it’s not layered with any jaw droppers that you’ll have to go back to the isolations for, and it’s got no rhythm counts to worry about. It’s just a set of beautiful poses, flowing into one another, usable for rhythmless taqsim.

I learnt the sequence in about one watch. And then I pulled out some taqsim music and for the next half an hour, went through this little sequence again and again. I stopped now and again to check some details on the video.

This was a lovely experience because trying it out immediately made me aware of all the details I had to get right. Was the inside arm or the outward one (facing the audience) that was to reach out? Was it the same arm that was high up in the L pose that later went into the “Liberty” pose? (Nope). Where was she looking, at each point? How do you get in and then out of this sequence?

I played around with this one sequence for a nice long while, finding the music that I thought went well with it, and slowly I managed to add a few moves to the beginning and end to make it fit the whole little taqsim piece I had found. It needs some polishing, but I do plan to write it out and put it away as a tiny choreographed chunk, just for practice. I also tried the same sequence with chiftetelli and loved the result.

Over the years, I’ve used this peculiar method of getting obsessed with one combo for the day as a way to really learn moves and file them right into my  dance memory. When I look back, I find that the moves I know best are the ones I allowed myself to spend some hours on, doing them at random while going about other things, visualizing them, adding to them etc. I can think of many in that category including Sadie’s first long chifti combo on Slow and Sultry. I can’t forget it if I tried.  I really recommend the choreography-challenged learners I know give this method a try. So many of you tell me you just never manage to get a whole choreography done or even a set of combos finished up. Hours and hours of muscle drills = but no free flowing dancing with the combinations you’ve got on videos. Well, try this out and see if it works for you too!

I am completely amazed at the nothing-short-of-fantastic workout I completed today. I say completed because I ease into a new workout not arge into it and collapse in a sorry heap, and I’ve been progressively moving into Ballet Conditioning for the past two weeks or so. Today I went through the whole workout and am exhilarated, not just at going through the whole lot, but at how surprisingly wonderful this workout is.

Element: Ballet Conditioning is taught by Elise Gulan  who happens to be just what I think a ballet dancer should be. Graceful, gentle, feminine, pleasant, dreamy. She has a dancer’s body and a sunny smile and in her very soothing voice, takes you through a workout that’s energizing and relaxing all at the same time.

This long, long clip shows you the entire first segment of this video, but it  doesn’t capture the real work in the middle and the solid short cardiovascular and ab strengthening workout that ends it.

Elise begins with graceful stretches that will not be unfamiliar to a dancer. Bend forwards, light backbend, side stretches are part of most dance workouts, but here, you have to do them with ballet arms and with infinite grace. That means holding the core stable and in. Still, I didn’t think it was going to be very hard work and I even thought I’d keep this one aside to do on days when I’m a bit lazy. Ha!

You get a chair next and this substitutes nicely for the bar for the next few exercises. Elise moves on to several rounds of demi pliés , grand pliés and relevés (bends, on-the-toes). Now you already begin to feel the work being done by the legs – the calves, thighs and hips. There’s a whole round of tondues or pointing the foot forward, side, back, done slowly and then faster, with a lot of repetition taking it into the area of intense stretching. You do developes, (the leg bends in to touch the other knee and then stretches out) which feel very nice, until you begin to feel the upper thighs and sides of the hips working. Oh wow. Circles and lifts with the pointed foot come next and these are a lot of work too. But veyr beautiful work. They just plain feel good. You also do some “attitudes” which is when you bend one leg at 90 degrees and stretch it out.

All through these exercises, Elise explains what muscles are being targeted and what’s getting toned. She gives you the ballet terms for the positions, but this is just incidental knowledge. The workout is not to learn ballet but to tone up real good.

The part where I cheated (I didn’t do as many repetitions) was when she got to the slight jumps. I was happy to see I could do these, but didn’t want to push it the first time trying them out. But here’s where your heart rate goes up good and proper. A few minutes of this and you’re really warmed up for the mat section of selected pilates moves

The pilates section has a lot of scissors or single leg pulls. Also the criss cross, full fledged roll ups and bridge-style hip lifts with one leg outstrethced. Here the focus is not on a variety of exercises but doing a few in two or three rounds with more intensity. What thrilled me at this point was that I could do all of these, with good form, and when she said for extra challenge move your hands from behind your head and just reach them out gracefully in front and sides, I was able to do this. That’s the pilates I’ve been doing at work. There was no way I could ever have done this before getting into pilates. I was so delighted, I feel like going for another round now that I’ve rested a bit.

We end with a few stretches. What a workout. I remember not ending up with any pain after starting the pilates routine, but with this workout I can feel the muscles that have been called into action. Let’s see if they hurt tomorrow. Either way, I loved this workout and plan to stick with it at least thrice a week.

And oh, it made the omis that followed look juicier. I’m not sure how.

These are hard work. But you can feel straight away what it’s doing to tone the legs. Matter of fact, all through, Elise keeps telling you what move is doing what and this helps to keep you motivated way more than all the cheerleading you hear on exercise videos. Working with exercise videos, I’ve found that it really helps to spell out where you should be feeling the action and what it’s doing – it draws your focus to the spot and that concentration helps improve the move.

Tami took a leave of absence from her dancing and like many of us who do that from time to time, she’s not sure where to take it up from. Just taking up where you left off doesn’t always wor, and even less so for beginner or savvy beginners. Having focused so much on exercise lately, I’m almost in the same boat. The difference is I didn’t give dancing up completely and have become well clued in about how to “re-enter” and what to do.

So, I decided to put together some suggestions for Tami – and invite additions from others — and see if these can help her. And this is on the blog with her permission. She keeps thinking she’s not good enough and lets this get in the way of her learning, so this is an additional challenge. She’s wondering right now whether she should just start off with five minutes a day. And my answer to that is no.

Five minutes a day won’t help because:
1. it would take more than that time to even warm up and you can’t skip that phase if you’re rusty.
2. It would typically be unplanned and by the time she gets somewhere, she’d stop.
3. It would be so little time that nothing motivating or inspirational would happen to lead on to the next day – other than just getting it done somehow.

So, I think she should give it half an hour. Feel free to chip in, other people.

First of all, I think Tami should organize her dance space or corner. Put some pretty stuff around. Some dance wear maybe, some pretty colors she likes.

Second, she should put away the mirror. It’s tough to look good or think you look good after a long gap, so we don’t want to short circuit re-dancing with any negative thoughts of that sort.

Third, Tami should choose the music that she loves and keep it ready.

And fourth, she should make sure there are no interruptions.

When she has all this in place, it’ll be easier to sustain the session.

Now, we must have a warm up. Absolutely essential. Skipping this only means leaving yourself vulnerable to injury. And one can get injured most unexpectedly even in parts not thought to be weak. I don’t know if any of you have ever just stepped and suddenly felt a sharp pain in a toe or some other part of the foot. I have and it’s always taken me completely by surprise. I immediately rest the foot and just soften up on it completely and it recovers. But it’s scary. Unless Tami has a favorite warm up already, I’d recommend East Coast’s warm up. Not the whole thing yet: just the first two segments, stopping at the point where the Solstice Ensemble descends to the floor for seated moves. If the warm up feels inadequate and there’s the feeling of kinks or bits of pain, repeat it twice the next day. Not if there’s an injury, of course.

This much of the warm up is about 10 minutes and is enough for now.

Time to dance now. But let’s not get stuck on isolations, because that’s a long hard battle even for those who have been dancing. Leave the isolations be for now. Instead, Tami should take up some of the moves she likes a lot. She loves circles, undulations and shimmies. And that’s plenty to work withy. Circles are in fact, somewhat safer.

For the first day, just do a whole lot of circles of different types with much loved music. You have 20 minutes – cuttable to 10 or 15 if really needed. So just play with the circles you know and combine them. Slow them down and speed them up. Change level a very tiny bit. This format will be a bt like Nadira’s Toolkit – except it’s just circles. Other moves are mot banmed, but they mustn’t hijack the circle session – and must’nt be strongly percussive and sharp because you need to be in good form for those. Change leg positions, like in Drills x3.

Use the same format the next day but add undulations (very very gentle ones) to the mix of circles. The next day, introduce horizontal eights. Tami doesn’t have too many combinaitons in her muscle memory, so this is the time to get them in, really. A nice opportuity, in a way. So, what she could do is to is to pick up Luscious and Love Potion and use the “combinationlets” sprinkled all over it, sticking to the ones that are in the same category of moves. And there are plenty of these moves. Pick up not more than 3 moves or mini combinaitons to play with. Trying to do a whole segment may not work for her.

Stick with the selected combinations for a few days rather than add to them each day. This is because she hasn’t yet stuck hard to a routine. Trying too many will just make them get very lightly done but not perfected.

Somewhere after one week of sticking to it, introduce isolaitons, without getting too demanding. Give it 5 minutes. Start with the ones that are partly okay to begin with.

And now introduce shimmies. Tami is good at shimmies. She’s quite the shimmy queen, in fact. So, she could quite easily add them on to the small combinations from the two videos (selected because she particularly loves them).

Add on more combinations, gradually. And then tackle one whole segment. And so on! As she gets good at a section, she’ll feel it. And step up warm up, isolaitons, eventually getting into a full-fledged session of at least an hour every day

After that, she can get into killer exercises like the ones I do. Strengthening, cardio, conditioning, tribal isolaitons – working more witht he two videos to finish them up. She can also make the combinations bigger by combining the combinations!

And she’ll be dancing again.

Well, this intresting looking DVD is due for release soon. From the preview, it looks pretty much like it takes World Dance’s tribal fusion line several notches further into advanced territory. Moving on from isolation drills, which we’ve seen in all the previous DVDs so far, this one gets into styling and interesting techniques like contrasing fluid with percussive moves. And there’s a whole choreograhy here too! Yes, it’s definitely time for full-fledged choreographies.

Think silk, cinnamon and spice. Think rose petals, soft breezes and pearly white sands. Think of the most beautiful things you ever saw. And the saddest. Things that touched your heart, made you reach out, withdraw, feel pain, feel joy…

All of these are embodied in the dance that Sarah dances.

In this video, Sarah shows you that it’s not enough to dance with your body. You must dance with your thoughts, your imagination, your feelings and your dreams. If I were to watch this video once, and put it away, the one message I would go away with is that you must fill every movement and moment with whatever affects you most deeply. Remember something you yearned for, think of something that awes you with its beauty, and draw it into your dance. Take the music and make it your own story.

Forget your isolations and muscle conditioning drills and authentic Egyptian moves and your flawless technique and watch as Sarah Skinner tells you what it is in her heart and mind that makes her dance the way she does.

This video must have been so difficult to conceptualize. How do you explain what passing thought or feeling you called upon while dancing to hold your audience? To a seasoned dancer, this must come so naturally so as to be inseparable from the dance itself. And yet, in this remarkable instruction, she has explained and illustrated her beautiful slow lyrical dancing from all aspects.

By now if you’re impatient to know what on earth is on that DVD that’s so special, let me explain bit by bit.

In her first section, Sarah takes up foundation moves. This is just a brief introduction to each of the basics. Starting with posture, dance walks and turns we run quickly through arm positions, poses and how they are used including how to maintain energy while holding a pose to further enhance an emotion. Sarah’s hand moves are fluid and lovely and she explores the basics of this movement here. Head circles, hip and pelvic circles, chest slides and circles, figure eights, hip rolls, one-hip eights are introduced. So are full body snakes, undulations and basic shimmies, contractions, and even stomach rolls. All brief reviews.

The second section teaches organic movement, or how to dance naturally. That may sound like a contradiction in terms, but you could certainly use the technique explained here to bring more naturalness into your movement. All I’ll say is that it’s about leading with different parts of your body in a way that makes the entire move fuller. Practiced regularly, this will impact the overall look of your dancing.

The next section explains the meaning of taqsim and how it relates to rhythms are how these are interwoven in slow dancing.

Rhythms used in slower forms of belly dancing are now taken up in their own section. Sarah shows how to move to these rhythms. This is a unique and very interesting section where she gets you to try with her some movement sequences. Frankly I’d love a companion video just full of these. Say about a thousand of them. Watch every nuance and accent in this section – and there are many of them. The chiftitelli rhythm segment is particularly intresting if you’ve seen other videos that cover this (not that there are many). The slow and playful 9/8 is also covered here. This movement to rhythm is practiced in motion sequence chapters, step by step.

Rhythmless taqsim (the real taqsim, as many would say) is also explored. There are movement sequences with lots of tips on execution. From how to breathe to how to place your foot – Sarah takes you through this with lots of analogies for you to draw upon later.

Practice flows invite you to improvise a little on your own with minimal prompting, using the concepts just learnt. Each rhythm is taken up. Sarah will cue you on how to lead or what sort of moves to come up with. This section reminds me of some of the concepts used by Nadira Gamal in her improvisation toolkit. There are practice flows for rhythmless taqsim as well.

In a beautiful section on expression and musicality, Sarah dances to John Bilezikjian’s chiftetelli (a piece which totally gets me) as she analyzes and explains how she interprets the music and translates it into emotive movement. There are a lot of lessons here, as there are in the next section which is a music-only demonstration of many of the movements and sequences taken up until now. You can pick up so much from here for all the times you don’t know what to do when there’s a long slow entrance to a piece of music. Watch the relationship of emotional expression to music to movement. See how to use slowness, how to be inward oriented and outward. Watch also as Sarah uses the shamadaan to completely change the mood of the same movements. Sarah teaches may ways to engage an audience, when to be warm, when to be cold, when to look mysterious… amazing insight into the complexity of this beautiful dance. This long music-only section gives you the opportunity to focus on each move, distraction-free. She dances to several pieces of music. She includes a mysterious lethal-looking snake dance – not with snakes, but in a snake mood. There’s a clip with swords as well. For each, watch the complete change of mood and expression.

Finally, there’s her lovely performance to Lama Bada. This one is with the veil. It’s filled with both joyousness and emotional turmoil.

I want more Sarah.